Brightspire University
✦ The Realm of Aurelvane ✦
Brightspire University
Lanternmere · Founded in the Year of the Accord
“Every tale needs a teller.”
Four centuries ago, the great peoples of Aurelvane signed the Accord of Silverbough and ended the old wars forever. Today war is a history lecture, and the legends of old live on as careers, majors and sports teams. A chosen one is a scholarship category. A dark lord is a theater-club role.
High on the hill above the canal-city of Lanternmere, the lantern-lit towers of Brightspire welcome some twelve thousand students each year: knights and mages, witches and bards, rangers and dreamers, all learning their craft side by side on one crowded, glowing, slightly chaotic campus.
✧ Magic in Everyday Life
Magic flows as ley-current, piped through the cities and stored in charge-crystals. Nearly everyone can light a candle or warm their tea with a word; healing, enchanting and conjuration take years of study and a license. Overcast, and you'll pay for it with mana burn: headaches, nosebleeds, stray sparks. Lose your focus, and your spell may misfire in spectacular fashion.
Scrying slates The Whisperweave Runeframes Glimmercasts Skycarriages & ley-rails Rune-cards Hushcharms
✧ Peoples of the Realm
Humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, gnomes, tieflings, dragonborn, fae-kin, beastfolk and merfolk live, study and work together in peace. Dragons are rare and revered, and a few serve as visiting professors. Trolls maintain the bridges. Goblins run the finest courier guild in the realm.
✧ Spectral Animals
Glowing, translucent creatures of pure magic share the world with ordinary animals. Familiars are conjured by young mages and witches. Lingerers are familiars who stayed after their casters passed on, and roam freely under protection of law. Wildglows are born wherever ley lines run strong.
Their glow shows their mood: blue when calm, gold when happy, red when upset, and flickering when nervous.
✧ The Five Colleges
College of Chivalry
Crimson & Steel · Lance and Rose
Knights, squires and paladins. Loud, loyal and adored on tournament day. Dorm: Ironhold
College of the Arcane
Midnight & Silver · Open Book and Star
Mages, sorcerers and enchanters. Bookish, competitive, forever sleep-deprived. Dorm: Starwell
Hearth and Hollow
Moss & Amber · Cauldron and Moon
Witches, druids, healers and alchemists. Cozy, herbal, and secretly the most powerful. Dorm: Brambleroot
Song and Story
Violet & Gold · Lute and Quill
Bards, performers, scribes and historians. Dramatic, social, and behind every party. Dorm: Echo House
College of the Wilds
Forest & Sky · Bow and Feather
Rangers, beast-tamers and scouts. Outdoorsy, practical, rarely found indoors. Dorm: Canopy Lodge
Accord Hall
All Colleges · One Roof
The mixed dormitory, where every college shares floors, lounges and one very noisy kitchen.
✧ Around Campus
The Spire · The central tower, whose crystal peak glows the color of the season.
Valorfield Arena · Forty thousand seats, and the loudest place in the city on tournament days.
The Athenaeum · A library larger inside than out. Some shelves wander, and a lingerer owl guards the restricted wing.
Cauldron Row · The potion labs, famous for colorful smoke and the occasional small explosion.
The Familiar Commons · A glowing garden where spectral creatures gather, and the best study spot on campus.
The Tipsy Wyvern · The off-campus tavern and café, neutral ground for every college.
The Elderwood · The enchanted forest at the campus edge, home to ranger training and midnight dares.
⚔ The Grand Tourney League
Jousting is the realm's great sport. Each autumn the Brightspire Gryphons ride against eleven rival universities, chasing the Crown Cup, and no day is louder than the clash with the Duskmoor Wyverns. Expect the Joust, the Melee, the Ring Tilt, the Archery Gauntlet and dazzling Arcane Duels, with fireworks after every unhorsing and the grand Tourney Ball to close the season.
✧ The Academic Year
Emberfall
Autumn
Welcome Week · Familiar Summoning Day · Crown Cup · Tourney Ball
Frostlight
Winter
Midwinter Lantern Festival · Arcane Duel Finals
Bloomtide
Spring
Accord Day · Spring Faire · Final Trials · Graduation
Summer is the Wandering Season, for internships, travel and quests.
Grades from Fallen to Legendary · Trials each term · A Quest to graduate
Welcome to Brightspire. Your tale begins here.